Houma native keeps rolling with New Orleans derby

Wednesday

Raised among a Houma family known for its dominance on the basketball court, Danielle LaFont is no newbie when it comes to pushing her stamina or rough-housing competitors.

But recently the Houma native rolled into a new, especially colorful outlet for her athletic prowess and natural aggression.

In the world of New Orleans roller derby, LaFont is known as "Lt. Dan," part of a group of fun-loving, sarcastically girly dressing, elbow-pushing, hard-knocking warriors on skates. The 27-year-old LaFont joined the Big Easy Rollergirls in 2005, when the league was just starting up. LaFont, then commuting to practices from Houma, quit the team for about seven months due to a series of happenings, including a promotion at work and a wrecked car.

But LaFont returned to derby action in New Orleans early last fall, acting as a referee until she earned a spot in the teamís December bout.

LaFont said she relished the chance to finally skate onto the track after dreaming about it for months. The sweaty smell of derby pads seemed sweet, she said, just like the familiar salty air of Grand Isle, where she spent much of her childhood.

"Itís something I can be good at," she said of her derby role.

LaFont also serves as the sponsorship manager for the derby, a position that involves recruiting sponsors, selling ads and managing the pricing system for sponsors.

Roller derby is a full-contact sport played on four-wheeled skates on an oval, flat track. The sport involves pages of rules and its own terminology featuring words that hint at the playful violence inherent in the game -- players are "blockers, "pivots" and "jammers." The flat track makes the game very physical, demanding players push their bodies to the limits to build speed and strategize while keeping to the confines of a tight circle.

"Flat tracks require unparalleled athleticism, which translates into action, action, action on the track," boasts the Womenís Flat Track Derby Alliance, a group formed in 2004 that includes more than a dozen of the roller-derby leagues popping up across the country, including the New Orleans league.

"As frightening as it might seem, itís unbelievably loads of fun," LaFont said. The player said she finds empowerment in testing her limits and belonging to a large network of "wonderful women."

The all-female New Orleans league, the first and only flat-track derby in the city, started in the spring of 2005 and was set to roll with a Mardi Gras 2006 debut when Hurricane Katrina hit. The storm blew away 80 percent of the leagueís players, leaving a remnant that included less than a handful of its founding members and moving the first bout to last September.

Since then, the derby has followed suit with much of New Orleans, exhibiting south Louisiana spunk in its steady -- and successful -- efforts to rebuild. The league now includes 35 veteran players, 35 players in training or "newbies" and nine managers. The league, owned and operated by the skaters, includes two teams of about 14 players that face-off in bouts before sell-out crowds. New Orleansí Where Yíat magazine recently tapped the league as the cityís best local sports team.

"This takes dedication. Itís not just showing up and looking cute in skirts and skating," said Sally Asher, a player and public-relations manager for the derby. The derby is more than a sport, but a player-run organization and sisterhood of strong women who support one another inside and out of league activities.

"Itís kind of like a very tough sorority," Asher said.

The locally bred LaFont mixes in naturally among this bunch of physically rough, but tight-knit circle of women.

Dressed in black tights, small gray shorts and a loose, wide-necked shirt, her jet-black hair tied in a pair of messy pigtails capped by an olive-green helmet, she rolls over to the edge of the rink and plops onto a plastic picnic-table bench during a recent practice. Skaters in short skirts and striped leggings, pleated tennis skirts and black knee socks, tiny shorts and stockings, whiz by behind her.

Like most of the players, Lafontís an interesting combination of femininity and aggression, thick eyeliner and thick muscle, a soft voice explaining how much she enjoys cruising the track to physically block other skaters from busting through her "pack" of skaters.

The daughter of Houma Christian School assistant basketball coach Daniel LaFont, Danielle LaFont said she grew up with a basketball in her hand and a ready team of athletically gifted brothers and sisters.

"When youíre as big as we are, you always have a game going," she said a few moments later. Standing at 5-foot-8 (minus the roller skates), "I am actually the runt of the pack," she added.

LaFont played basketball and soccer at Terrebonne High School, becoming the last female to play on the male soccer team, and was tapped for a select recreational soccer team.

Until recently, LaFontís roller-skating experience was mainly limited to pre-teen driveway sessions with her grandmother, who taught her to skate.

LaFont heard about the Big Easy Rollergirls from friends at some of her haunts in New Orleans, one of whom asked her to join.

"She called me and I was like, ŽYeah, absolutely,í " she said.

LaFont said she was somewhat familiar with the sport from 1970s movies, but "wasnít 100-percent sure what I was getting myself into." After moving back to Houma, she commuted to practices, paying her dues to get a chance at starring in a bout. Players must train for several months, often working bouts, before hitting the track for a match.

Co-workers at Cristianoís in Houma, where LaFont served as general manager, first dubbed her "Lt. Dan" while goofing off one night, she said. Like any good nickname, it stuck, forming LaFontís derby persona.

Her camo-colored derby helmet includes military regalia and a U.S. flag. Her bio on the derby Web site boasts that "Lieutenant Dan comes from a long great Derby Tradition. Someone from her family has fought and died in every single American Derby Championship."

"When youíre picking a name like that, itís got to be something that you are, and I am Lt. Dan," she said.

LaFont remembers her first inspiration, arising from the wheeled antics of one of the derbyís most prolific skaters, known as "Cherry Pi."

"I saw her and what she could do on skates and I was like, ŽI want to do that,í " LaFont said.

Now, LaFont lives and waits tables in New Orleans and skates, with plans to continue competing as a stress-reliever when she returns to school for graphic design.

"For me, I have to constantly keep up on my game," she said. "It definitely takes work, regardless, no matter how talented you are."

The blocking, hitting and strategy, all done while skating in a tight circle, demand lots of technique and strength.

"A lot of people donít realize how fit you have to be to do this," Lafont said, adding that the physical strain forms the toughest part of the sport. "Your whole entire body becomes just one working muscle."

And injuries abound. Players have suffered broken bones, mild concussions and ugly cuts. But almost all return to the track.

LaFont said she wasnít even scrimmaging, but simply skating, when she fell, ripping open her chin and cracking a molar.

"It was pretty jagged," she said of the cut on her chin, which required 13 stitches. "Not fun," she said of the smashed tooth, which required a root canal.

But she was back to skating within days, comparing that decision to the one made by anyone who has ever fallen off a bike to get back on.

"It actually made me more aggressive of a player because I have no more fear," she said.

LaFont said her parents attended her debut bout in December.

"My dad was tickled pink to see me doing something athletic. He was excited about that," she said, noting that he nicknamed her "the human cannonball," because "I hit a lot of people."

The Big Easy Rollergirlsí last home bout of the season is Saturday at Blaine Kernís Mardi Gras World in Algiers Point.

For more information, visit www.bigeasyrollergirls.com.

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